Adaptation and change

OTHELLO — Othello residents might soon be able to purchase houses with floor plans that include an attached second primary suite, one of a number of options an Othello realty company is using to adapt to the market.

The Imagine Realty Group is always testing new ideas for unique houses and designs, said Imagine Realty Othello Broker Jessie Dominguez. The realty group held an open house for the active listing with the test floor plan design by Palos Verdes Custom Homes on Saturday.

“We do have a new floor plan that we're doing here for the new homes in Othello. It has two primary suites, like two owner suites,” said Dominguez. “What we were striving for was, as housing gets more expensive with the (interest) rates, if you wanted to move a parent in with you.”

Dominguez said that the design originated by working with one of the realty group’s clients and Palos Verdes. Imagine Realty is now treating it as a test idea and intending to offer it in new homes in Othello.

“We initially had met with a client who has a parent who is a little bit older and they wanted (the parent) to move in with them. So we sat down, we had an original (farmhouse) plan and what we did was say ‘hey, what if we were to add another primary suite,’” said Dominguez.

Imagine Realty gathers feedback from the client or home buyer on how the design is working and if anything needs to be adjusted before offering it on a wider scale.

“We took the plan and just started making all kinds of modifications to it until it got to a point where he had his own owner suite off the kitchen, his own patio access, his own closet,” said Dominguez. “Then on the other side of the house across the living room there's still a full owner suite, and … we priced it at $589,900.”

The design is not limited to moving parents into a home, said Dominguez.

“Those new buyers are still getting a very new, nicely designed home,” said Dominguez. “Even if they want to house a sibling or friend or to help pay the offset…the payment because of the interest rates, they have a suite.”

Dominguez said he had not seen any other properties that use the floorplan Imagine Realty’s builder designed.

“It works out great. Like I said, there's separation between all the rooms, even the two other rooms in the front of the house. It has really high ceilings, nice and open, it has a really big kitchen.”

Dominguez said these test designs are also a way they can adapt to the market. Their builder has started offering incentives to buy down the interest rate and make the monthly payments lower, which he said is intended to adapt to a market of high-interest rates and high monthly payments.

“We actually married two homes,” said Dominguez. “We took our Signature series, and we added touches of our Palos Verde homes with the stucco, the granite, the trim work…and we started adding patios, and we kept it at $350,000. So they didn't quite get that expensive home, but we had to adapt to the market, so we made a new product. They're very popular. Our first three went before we even had them built in Quincy.”

In the middle of high-interest rates, increasing home prices and a housing shortage in Othello, Dominguez said Imagine Realty is doing well.

“As far as the new homes, slow and steady is our game. The demand is still there,” said Dominguez. “We actually enjoy the (slower) rates. When we were selling them a year or two ago, it was actually way too fast. It was sustainable, but, you know, you start sacrificing quality control, just keeping up the schedules, keeping up with banks and appraisers, everything just got backed up. So this is actually a very healthy rate.”

Gabriel Davis may be reached at gdavis@columbiabasinherald.com. Download the Columbia Basin Herald app on iOS and Android.